A system for human identification from X-ray dental radiographs

Forensic odontology is the branch of forensics that deals with human identification based on dental features. In this paper, we present a system for automating that process by identifying people from dental X-ray images. Given a dental image of a postmortem (PM), the proposed system retrieves the best matches from an antemortem (AM) database. The system automatically segments dental X-ray images into individual teeth and extracts the contour of each tooth. Features are extracted from each tooth and are used for retrieval. We developed a new method for teeth separation based on integral projection. We also developed a new method for representing and matching teeth contours using signature vectors obtained at salient points on the contours of the teeth. During retrieval, the AM radiographs that have signatures closer to the PM are found and presented to the user. Matching scores are generated based on the distance between the signature vectors of AM and PM teeth. Experimental results on a small database of dental radiographs are encouraging.     

Matching of dental X-ray images for human identification

Forensic dentistry involves the identification of people based on their dental records, mainly available as radiograph images. Our goal is to automate this process using image processing and pattern recognition techniques. Given a postmortem radiograph, we search a database of antemortem radiographs in order to retrieve the closest match with respect to some salient features. In this paper, we use the contours of the teeth as the feature for matching. A semi-automatic contour extraction method is used to address the problem of fuzzy tooth contours caused by the poor image quality. The proposed method involves three stages: radiograph segmentation, pixel classification and contour matching. A probabilistic model is used to describe the distribution of object pixels in the image. Results of retrievals on a database of over 100 images are encouraging.     

A neural network system for matching dental radiographs

This paper addresses the problem of creating a postmortem identification system by matching image features extracted from dental radiographs. We lay the architecture of a prototype automated dental identification system (ADIS), which tackles the dental image matching problem by first extracting high-level features to expedite retrieval of potential matches and then by low-level image comparison using inherent features of dental images. We propose the use of learnable inherent dental image features for tooth-to-tooth image comparisons. We treat the tooth-to-tooth matching problem as a binary classification problem for which we propose probabilistic models of class-conditional densities. We also propose an adaptive strategic searching technique and use it in conjunction with back propagation in order to estimate system parameters. We present promising experimental results that reflect the value of our approach.     

Merging face and finger images for human identification

Human identification performance reported so far using face or finger images under certain conditions is good practice, however, there is still a great need for better performance in biometrics for use in video surveillance. One possible way to achieve improved performance is to combine information from multiple sources. Besides, such systems alleviate some of the problems that are faced by single biometrics-based systems like restricted degrees of freedom, spoof attacks, and unacceptable error rates. We present a prototype bimodal biometric identification system by merging face and finger images. A novel approach is adopted to merge biometric (face and finger) traits of an individual to one image (containing features of both), named merged pattern. The integrated features are then extracted with an adaptive artificial neural network. The proposed algorithm is shown to exhibit robustness in achieving better classification results with both good generalization performance and a fast training/test time using variable public domain databases. Sources of variability include facial expression, gender, individual appearance, tilt, lighting conditions, and occluding objects (hair, spectacles, etc).     

Segmentation and labeling of face images for electronic documents

Face image segmentation and labeling is required in several quality tests which a face image has to pass in order to be included into an electronic ID document. The complexity of such a problem depends on the complexity of the scene, but in general there are no restrictions to the scene. The procedure that we have developed segments a face image into five regions: skin, hair, shoulders, background and padding frame. The presented method consists of two main steps: oversegmentation and labeling. In the first step, the image is segmented into homogeneous regions, whereas in the second step, the labeling of the homogeneous regions is performed. In the course of our research we experimented with several methods for the two described steps, and in this paper we present a setup in which the oversegmentation is performed using the mean-shift segmentation, and labeling is performed using the AdaBoost classification algorithm. Such setup has produced the best results in our experiments which we also present herein.     

A multi-plane approach for text segmentation of complex document images

This study presents a new method, namely the multi-plane segmentation approach, for segmenting and extracting textual objects from various real-life complex document images. The proposed multi-plane segmentation approach first decomposes the document image into distinct object planes to extract and separate homogeneous objects including textual regions of interest, non-text objects such as graphics and pictures, and background textures. This process consists of two stages—localized histogram multilevel thresholding and multi-plane region matching and assembling. Then a text extraction procedure is applied on the resultant planes to detect and extract textual objects with different characteristics in the respective planes. The proposed approach processes document images regionally and adaptively according to their respective local features. Hence detailed characteristics of the extracted textual objects, particularly small characters with thin strokes, as well as gradational illuminations of characters, can be well-preserved. Moreover, this way also allows background objects with uneven, gradational, and sharp variations in contrast, illumination, and texture to be handled easily and well. Experimental results on real-life complex document images demonstrate that the proposed approach is effective in extracting textual objects with various illuminations, sizes, and font styles from various types of complex document images.     

Multiscale recognition of legume varieties based on leaf venation images

In this work we propose an automatic low cost procedure aimed at classifying legume species and varieties based exclusively on the characterization and analysis of the leaf venation network. The identification of leaf venation patterns which are characteristic for each species or variety is not an easy task since in some situations (specially for cultivars from the same species) the vein differences are visually indistinguishable for humans. The proposed procedure takes as input leaf images acquired using a standard scanner, processes the images in order to segment the veins at different scales, and measures different traits on them. We use these features in combination with modern automatic classifiers and feature selection techniques in order to perform recognition. The process was initially applied to recognize three different legumes in order to evaluate the improvements over previous works in the literature, and then it was employed to distinguish three diverse soybean cultivars. The results show the improvements achieved by the usage of the multiscale features. The cultivar recognition is a more challenging problem, since the experts cannot distinguish evident differences in plain sight. However, we achieve acceptable classification results. We also analyze the feature relevance and identify, for each classifier, a small set of distinctive traits to differentiate the species and varieties.     

分水岭算法与其他方法融合的粘连虫卵图像分割

在分水岭算法基础上融合多种方法,试图找出适合粘连虫卵图像的有效分割方法。通过对比实验发现,最小误差阈值法、极小值合并、分水岭等多种方法的融合能够准确地将粘连虫卵图像分离,取得很好的效果。     

Adaptive segmentation based on multi-classification model for dermoscopy images

Segmentation accuracy of dermoscopy images is important in the computer-aided diagnosis of skin cancer and a wide variety of segmentation methods for dermoscopy images have been developed. Considering that each method has its strengths and weaknesses, a novel adaptive segmentation framework based on multi-classification model is proposed for dermoscopy images. Firstly, five patterns of images are summarized according to the factors influencing segmentation. Then the matching relation is established between each image pattern and its optimal segmentationmethod. Next, the given image is classified into one of the five patterns by the multi-classification model based on BP neural network. Finally, the optimal segmentation method for this image is selected according to the matching relation, and then the image is effectively segmented. Experiments show that the proposed method delivers better accuracy and more robust segmentation results compared with the other seven state-of-the-art methods.     

Automated personal identification system based on human iris analysis

In general, a typical iris recognition system includes iris imaging, iris liveness detection, iris image quality assessment, and iris recognition. This paper presents an algorithm focusing on the last two steps. The novelty of this algorithm includes improving the speed and accuracy of the iris segmentation process, assessing the iris image quality such that only the clear images are accepted so as to reduce the recognition error, and producing a feature vector with discriminating texture features and a proper dimensionality so as to improve the recognition accuracy and computational efficiency. The Hough transform, polynomial fitting technique, and some morphological operations are used for the segmentation process. The phase data from 1D Log-Gabor filter is extracted and encoded efficiently to produce a proper feature vector. Experimental tests were performed using CASIA iris database (756 samples). These tests prove that the proposed algorithm has an encouraging performance.

采用几何模型切分的人脸纹理图像生成算法

为了克服传统的照片图像拼接方法中利用特征线进行不同照片之间公共交界线定位不准确的缺点,提出一种“几何模型切分”的人脸纹理图像生成算法。通过对人脸几何模型进行切分,以切分后模型图片的轮廓作为边界线裁剪相应的人脸照片,实现不同照片之间交界线的准确对接,并采用柱面纹理映射方法将生成的纹理图像映射到特定人脸几何模型上。实验结果表明,采用提出的“几何模型切分”算法生成的人脸纹理图像进行纹理映射可以得到较好的真实感三维人脸模型,是一种生成人脸纹理图像的有效方法。     

基于图像处理的作物病害自动识别系统的研究

为了实现对作物病害检测与防治的自动化,构建了一个基于叶片病斑图像处理的计算机诊断系统,以实现作物叶部病害的自动识别。该系统依据作物病叶颜色差异,用EM算法和偏微分方程水平集模型等图像分割算法,从图像中获取完整准确的病斑;然后提取病斑的颜色、形状和纹理特征,运用主成分分析方法对数据进行降维处理;最后采用神经网络和支持向量机方法对这些特征进行学习与分类,以及病害识别。系统已试用于黄瓜、番茄等园艺作物叶部病害的自动诊断与识别,其优点是自动化程度高,识别准确率在一定条件下较好。     

An agglomerative segmentation framework for non-convex regions within uterine cervix images

The National Cancer Institute has collected a large database of uterine cervix images termed “cervigrams”, for cervical cancer screening research. Tissues of interest within the cervigram, in particular the lesions, are of varying sizes and of complexnon-convex shapes. The tissues possess similar color features and their boundaries are not always clear. The main objective of the current work is to provide a segmentation framework for tissues of interest within the cervix, that can cope with these difficulties in an unsupervised manner and with a minimal number of parameters.     

高斯颜色模型在瓷片图像分类中的应用

由于RGB颜色空间不能很好贴近人的视觉感知,同时也缺少对空间结构的描述,因此采用兼顾颜色信息和空间信息的高斯颜色模型以获取更全面的特征,提出了一种基于高斯颜色模型和多尺度滤波器组的彩色纹理图像分类法,用于瓷器碎片图像的分类。首先将原始图像的RGB颜色空间转换到高斯颜色模型;再用正规化多尺度LM滤波器组对高斯颜色模型的3个通道构造滤波图像,并借助主成分分析寻找主特征图,接着选取各通道的最大高斯拉普拉斯和最大高斯响应图像,与特征图联合构成特征图像组用以进行参数提取;最后以支持向量机作为分类器进行学习和分类。实验结果表明,与基于灰度的、基于RGB模型的和基于RGB_bior 4.4小波的方法相比,本文方法具有更好的分类结果,其中在Outex纹理图像库上获得的分类准确率为96.7%,在瓷片图像集上获得的分类准确率为94.2%。此方法可推广应用到其他彩色纹理分类任务。     

分类与分割相结合的JPEG图像隐写分析

目的 隐写分析研究现状表明,与秘密信息的嵌入过程相比,图像内容和统计特性差异对隐写检测特征分布会造成更大的影响,这导致图像隐写分析成为了一个"相同类内特征分布分散、不同类间特征混淆严重"的分类问题。针对此问题,提出了一种更加有效的JPEG图像隐写检测模型。方法 通过对隐写检测常用的分类器进行分析,从降低隐写检测特征类内离散度的角度入手,将基于图像内容复杂度的预分类和图像分割相结合,根据图像内容复杂度对图像进行分类、分割,然后分别对每一类子图像提取高维富模型隐写检测特征,构建分类器进行训练和测试,并通过加权融合得到最终的检测结果。结果 在实验部分,对具有代表性的隐写检测特征集提取了两类可分性判据,对本文算法的各类别、区域所提取特征的可分性均得到明显提高,证明了模型的有效性。同时在训练、测试图像库匹配和不匹配的情况下,对算法进行了二分类测试,并与其他算法进行了性能比较,本文算法的检测性能均有所提高,性能提升最高接近10%。结论 本文算法能够有效提高隐写检测性能,尤其是在训练、测试图像库统计特性不匹配的情况下,本文算法性能提升更加明显,更适合于实际复杂网络下的应用。     

A mobile,lightweight, poll-based food identification system

Even though there are many reasons that can lead to people being overweight, experts agree that ingesting more calories than needed is one of them. But besides the appearance issue, being overweight is actually a medical concern because it can seriously affect a person's health. Losing weight then becomes an important goal, and one way to achieve it, is to burn more calories than ingested. The present paper addresses the problem of food identification based on image recognition as a tool for dietary assessment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first system totally embedded into a camera-equipped mobile device, capable of identifying and classifying meals – that is, pictures which have multiple types of food placed on a plate. Considering the variability of the environment conditions, which the camera will be in, the identification process must be robust. It must also be fast, sustaining very low wait-times for the user. In this sense, we propose a novel approach, which integrates segmentation and learning on a multi-ranking framework. The segmentation is based on a modified region-growing method which runs over multiple feature spaces. These multiple segments feed support vector machines, which rank the most probable segment corresponding to a type of food. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on a cell phone.     

基于Bi-Laplacian润饰图像的盲鉴别算法

图像润饰是一种广泛应用的图像篡改手段。为了对润饰的图像实施盲检测,提出了一种图像盲鉴别算法。该算法首先查找图像中每个分块并把其插入到KD树中,搜索到值相同或最近的粗略匹配块,然后使用位置向量的分层聚类法群集块对消除杂散配对,最后应用7-tap拉普拉斯过滤器并统计可疑块的零连通分量来消除误报,从而定位出精确的润饰篡改区域。实验表明,该方法能有效精确地识别出修复刷对非压缩图像和高品质压缩图像等一类图像的润饰篡改技术的使用。当应用到压缩级别较高的图像时,如果润饰的区域足够大,依然会获得准确的结果。     

语义融合眼底图像动静脉分类方法

目的 眼底图像中的动静脉分类是许多系统性疾病风险评估的基础步骤。基于传统机器学习的方法操作复杂,且往往依赖于血管提取的结果,不能实现端到端的动静脉分类,而深度语义分割技术的发展使得端到端的动静脉分类成为可能。本文结合深度学习强大的特征提取能力,以提升动静脉分类精度为目的,提出了一种基于语义融合的动静脉分割模型SFU-Net（semantic fusion based U-Net）。方法 针对动静脉分类任务的特殊性,本文采用多标签学习的策略来处理该问题,以降低优化难度。针对动静脉特征的高度相似性,本文以DenseNet-121作为SFU-Net的特征提取器,并提出了语义融合模块以增强特征的判别能力。语义融合模块包含特征融合和通道注意力机制两个操作：1）融合不同尺度的语义特征从而得到更具有判别能力的特征;2）自动筛选出对目标任务更加重要的特征,从而提升性能。针对眼底图像中血管与背景像素之间分布不均衡的问题,本文以focal loss作为目标函数,在解决类别不均衡问题的同时重点优化困难样本。结果 实验结果表明,本文方法的动静脉分类的性能优于现有绝大多数方法。本文方法在DRIVE（digital retinal images for vessel extraction）数据集上的灵敏性（sensitivity）与目前最优方法相比仅有0.61%的差距,特异性（specificity）、准确率（accuracy）和平衡准确率（balanced-accuracy）与目前最优方法相比分别提高了4.25%,2.68%和1.82%;在WIDE数据集上的准确率与目前最优方法相比提升了6.18%。结论 语义融合模块能够有效利用多尺度特征并自动做出特征选择,从而提升性能。本文提出的SFU-Net在动静脉分类任务中表现优异,性能超越了现有绝大多数方法。     

An effective classification and numbering system for dental bitewing radiographs using teeth region and contour information

We propose a dental classification and numbering system to effectively segment, classify, and number teeth in dental bitewing radiographs. An image enhancement method that combines homomorphic filtering, homogeneity-based contrast stretching, and adaptive morphological transformation is proposed to improve both contrast and illumination evenness of the radiographs simultaneously. Iterative thresholding and integral projection are adapted to isolate teeth to regions of interest (ROIs) followed by contour extraction of the tooth and the pulp (if available) from each ROI. A binary linear support vector machine using the skew-adjusted relative length/width ratios of both teeth and pulps, and crown size as features is proposed to classify each tooth to molar or premolar. Finally, a numbering scheme that combines a missing teeth detection algorithm and a simplified version of sequence alignment commonly used in bioinformatics is presented to assign each tooth a proper number. Experimental results show that our system has accuracy rates of 95.1% and 98.0% for classification and numbering, respectively, in terms of number of teeth tested, and correctly classifies and numbers the teeth in four images that were reported either misclassified or erroneously numbered, respectively.